JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The mother of a man who was shot and killed on the Westside while sitting in a car with his wife told News4Jax on Friday that her son, a convicted drug trafficker, had his issues, but was a good father, husband and friend to anyone in need.
Police said that James Jackson, 47, died at the scene in the Pinecrest neighborhood across from Herlong Airport on Guardian Court. His wife was not injured.
Jackson has a long history of drug trafficking arrests, dating back to the 1980s, for cocaine and heroin. He had been to prison twice, including a six-year stretch from 2005 to 2011.
Jackson's mother cried tears of frustration Friday, acknowledging that her son had previous run ins with the law, but saying he didn't deserve to be murdered.
Police said that Jackson was shot multiple times while he was sitting in a car with his wife right next to him. The couple lives in the neighborhood, and police are interviewing the wife for more details. It is not believed that she was the shooter.
Police are working to find out if the shooter walked up or drove up to the couple and what happened in the moments leading up to the shooting.
Most said they didn't know Jackson because he and his wife had recently moved in, but those who knew him said he was quiet and kept to himself.
“They mind their own business,” neighbor Kelley Willie said. “Everybody in this neighborhood minds their own business.”
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said that Jackson's wife will be key in the investigation.
“They'll check the background on both of them, because it's unusual that one was hit so close together and the other one wasn't,” Smith said. “It gives the appearance he was targeted for a particular reason.”
One neighbor told News4Jax that his daughters heard around 10 shots fired.
"It sounded like gunshots, and then the dog got up and started barking, and that was it," said David Ramdass, who lives in the neighborhood.
News4Jax used JSO's crime-mapping system and found that 99.9 percent of crimes in the area happened outside of the Pinecrest subdivision. These numbers are within a half mile, and all incidents occurred in the past six months.
"We don't really have a lot until we do that interview. The time it occurred in the residential neighborhood, not a lot of people are out at that time for us to locate, so we're just early on in our investigation, trying to determine what led up to the shooting," said Sgt. Marc Musser with JSO.
Police went door-to-door Friday, speaking with neighbors. They spent a lot of time at a home across the street because it has a surveillance camera outside.
